San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-11-04


or faint smile, and Immediately turned
away to resume her remarks TO Lord
Staines, who was evidently much ticklCd
/ by the discontinue OF his heir apparent.
Jim all this time was very pleasantly
engaged in talking over by-gone days
/ with Lady Mildred, only every now aud
again his eyes wandered 20 Hilda and
rested upon her with ridiculous look OF
! pride and affection. Doubtless he was
thinking how good IL was Of her to take
so much trouble TO amuse the old gentle
man at the head Of the table. As for the
Rev. Simeon and myself, we eat our
dinner, which was an excellent one, and
nobody took sie smallest notice Of us.
Later in the evening, when we assembled
in the drawing room, Lord Staines became
grave and silent once more, black Care
having, presume, recalled herself 10 his
memory. Very soon he murmured some
excuse and slipped away-perhaps to try
and establish balance between revenue
and expenditure in his study. Lady Mil
dred had some photographs to show
to Jim, who may or may not have
been as interested in them as he professed
TO be; Mr.. Turner, for lack Of more
worthy listener, was fain to favor me
with his views upon the subject Of secular
these at some length, / saw exactly what
l had expected to see. Bracknell seated
himself upon a sofa beside Hilda, who put
up her fan and received him with a side
glance which was half supercilious, half
encouraging. He began to address her in
low tone of remOnstrance. Presumably
he was begging to be informed why she
had treated him with such marked cool
ness, for presently | heard her reply
laughing slightly, II wouldn't press that
point If were you, Lord Bracknell. II
you do, perhaps | may ask for your YER
sions of certain stories that heard about
you in London"
"What stories?' he returned, eagerly.
depend upon it, there wasn't word Of
truth in them. Surely you don't believe
all you are toldS" And so forth and SO
forth.
The remainder Of the colloquy was car
ried on in such subdued accents that the
eloquence of the Rev. Simeon, who
was standing very close TO me and en-
phasizing his periods by repeated taps
upon my shirt front with his forefinger,
drowned it. But, indeed, / was not curl
Gus to hear more. How many times, l
wonder, has that self same dialogue been
conducted in identical terms since the
world began, and how many times will it
be repeated before the human race be-
comes extinct? Generally, | think, about
five to ten minutes elapse before the point
Ii reached when the lady invites unre-
served confession as the preliminary to
possible absOlution; and then the man
tells her-well, suppose he sometimes
tells her the truth, though / should
imagine that that is rare case. What
Bracknell said to Hilda, after they had
moved away slowly toward the open
French window, through which they
presently vanished, have no idea, nor
can it be of the smallest consequence.
What do know is that they were absent
for the best part of an hour, and that long
before the expiration of that time Jim had
grown fidgety, Lady Mildred was looking
anxious, Mr.. Turner had fallen sound
asleep, and this humble chrOnicler was
well nigh worn out with desperate efforts
to sustain conversation which flickered
and died the moment it was left alone.
At length Lord Staines returned. He
had been making hay with his hair, from
which / concluded that he had failed to
discover any arithmetical process by which
the greater can be substracted from the
less, and unless | greatly misjudged him,
his inward ejaculation ON seeing us was
"Whatl not gone YETI" But he was far
too polite to utter any words to that effect,
and he discOursed amiably until Bracknell
and Hilda reappeared, which they did
without the least symptom of cmbarrass-
ment on either side Then old Turner
woke up suddenly, rubbed his hands, and
said that they had had delightful even
ing, but that they really mustn't keep the
carriage waiting any longer; whereupon
we all wished one another good night
with alacrity, and the party broke up.
Jim's dog cart was at the door, and he
had promised to give me lift home; but
as l was putting on my Overcoat in the
hall he followed me and said: "Do you
mind waiting a quarter of an hour, Harry?
/ should like to smoke a cigar with
Bracknell before we 60"
OF course l replied that didn't mind
at all, and accordingly we adjourned to
the smoking room, whittier Lord Staines
did not accompany US. don't think have
ever met any one quite so straightforward
as Jim. 1t never occurred to him to ap-
proach any subject by little introduce
tory beating about the bush, as almost all
of us do. If he had anything to say to
you, you might be quite certain that he
would say every word of it, and lose no
Jllut dbOuG NlOlLlS 81 clJuGls Ills Cigar
was hardly alight before he had explained
matters to Bracknell in the most unequiv-
ocal language.
Look here, Bracknell, old chap" said
he, 81 don't want you to fiirt with Hilda
Turner. We are all friends here, so I
don't mind telling you that / mean to ask
her to be my wife, though I'd rather you
didn't speak about it to any one else just
yet"
Something in this announcement
seemed to tickle Bracknell amazingly; for
his mirth was so immOderate and so pro-
longed that Jim felt constrained at last to
add: at isn't joke"
"Oh yes it is, my dear boy" returned
the other, still laughing; cts first rate
joke, if you could only see It, Be advised
by me, Jim, and drop that young woman
like hot potato. She's Pct the wife for
you"
"That's as may be-" rejoined Jim,
quietly; "but at all events she is not the
wife for you"
~ should rather think she wasn't. The
wife for me is a lady with ESQ, 900 of her
own. OF course it would be desirable
that she should have more, but $50 900 is
the irreduCble minimum; the governor
has just been telling me So BY the way,
do you think the fair Hilda is going to &C.
cept your"
Jim, with a becoming blush, admitted
that he was sanguine.
-"Well, she may. Five thousand year
is not to be sneezed at in these hard
times, and l suppose you're worth all
that; aren't you'"
Jim got up and leaned with his back